Raja & Company

Running Raja & Company on Subhukar Street keeps us busy enough from sunrise until the sun goes down behind the buildings. Sambavar Vadagarai is a place where everyone seems to know everyone else's business, so the shop ends up being a spot where people linger a bit too long after buying what they came for. We have a lot of different things piled up inside. Sometimes it feels like there isn't enough room to move, especially when a new delivery comes in and the boxes take up half the floor space. I usually spend my time sitting at the old wooden desk, trying to keep the accounts straight while answering questions about what we have in stock. The street outside is narrow, so when a truck comes to drop off goods, everything has to happen fast before the traffic gets backed up. You can hear the goats and the occasional tractor passing by. The walls inside have a few patches where the paint is peeling, but it doesn't really matter as long as the roof doesn't leak during the rains. My father used to say that a shop is only as good as the person standing behind the counter, so I try to stay present and not wander off too much. We keep the doors wide open to catch whatever breeze comes through Subhukar Street. It’s a simple setup, nothing like the big showrooms you see in the bigger towns nearby. We just do our work and go home to rest.